Book recommendations to start learning programming for project Euler

[MidgetDwarf]

I do not know much about programming. I have used Mathematica, and some Python in the past for very specific problems.
Any book recommendations for one wanting to learn programming in order to solve problems from Project Euler. I am familiar with number theory, but not with programming.

 

[malawi_glenn]

I share this with my students, its a free e book from springer
"Introduction to Scientific Programming with Python"
https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-030-50356-7

For simpler projects I recommend them to use https://codewith.mu/

This might be of interest for you
https://www.sagemath.org/
Just google "number theory with sage" "abstract algebra with sage" etc and you'll find tons of material like these

• https://math.gordon.edu/ntic/ ("Number Theory: In Context and Interactive", has Sage excersies)
• http://abstract.ups.edu/index.html ("Abstract Algebra: Theory and Applications"click on "sage and aata" in the left menu)
• https://doc.sagemath.org/html/en/prep/Quickstarts/Abstract-Algebra.html ("Sage quickstart for algebra")

 

[MidgetDwarf]

I share this with my students, its a free e book from springer
"Introduction to Scientific Programming with Python"
https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-030-50356-7

For simpler projects I recommend them to use https://codewith.mu/

This might be of interest for you
https://www.sagemath.org/
Just google "number theory with sage" "abstract algebra with sage" etc and you'll find tons of material like these

• https://math.gordon.edu/ntic/ ("Number Theory: In Context and Interactive", has Sage excersies)
• http://abstract.ups.edu/index.html ("Abstract Algebra: Theory and Applications"click on "sage and aata" in the left menu)
• https://doc.sagemath.org/html/en/prep/Quickstarts/Abstract-Algebra.html ("Sage quickstart for algebra")

Thanks for the great links. I was unaware of the existence of Sage.
I ordered a physical copy of the Springer book.

 

[malawi_glenn]

I have some more Sage stuff if you are interested and want to go down that route

 

[pbuk]

I'd stick with Python. Rather than a book I'd use https://www.programiz.com/python-programming to consolidate what you know already.

 

[pbuk]

I have some more Sage stuff if you are interested and want to go down that route

Do you think Sage would be useful for solving Project Euler problems?

 

[berkeman]

I do not know much about programming. I have used Mathematica, and some Python in the past for very specific problems.
Any book recommendations for one wanting to learn programming in order to solve problems from Project Euler. I am familiar with number theory, but not with programming.

Can you list a few of the problems from Project Euler that you are interested in working on? That would help us in our recommendations, I think. Thanks.

 

[malawi_glenn]

Do you think Sage would be useful for solving Project Euler problems?

Rethorical question?

 

[pbuk]

Rethorical question?

Not at all. As I understand it, the aim of SageMath is to create an open source alternative to declarative math packages such as Matlab and Mathematica. If you look at the "leader board" for Project Euler there is only one entry for an Eulerian who declares that they use Mathematica.

Whilst some of the early problems can easily be solved using e.g. Mathematica in reasonable time e.g. https://projecteuler.net/problem=1, this leaves the "heavy lifting" to the package and does not give you the experience of efficiently reducing the size of the solution space that is necessary in solving many of the later problems.

 

[malawi_glenn]

"heavy lifting" to the package and does not give you the experience of efficiently reducing the size of the solution space that is necessary in solving many of the later problems.

Just because there are packages does not mean one has to use them. One could also use the packages to check the solution. I mean if you do not want to use the inbuilt "mod" function, just write your own :-)

EDIT: I guess GNU octave is still "good" these days. It is basically a free version of MATLAB

 

[MidgetDwarf]

Yes please, share more Sage stuff.

As for what problems I want to solve in Project Euler. I want to start from 1 going upwards. I see it more as practicing the number theory I know, and learning more, while learning a bit of python, or what ever language, in the process.